Isle of Wight County’s Economic Development Authority could lose roughly 20 acres of developable land and 380,000 square feet of buildable area across four for-sale, EDA-owned parcels should the county follow through with a proposal to increase to 300 feet the distance required between industrial-zoned properties and residential communities, according to Economic Development Director Kristi Sutphin.

The EDA board put forward a counterproposal at its Jan. 14 meeting that would leave the 100-foot front-yard setback as-is and increase the side- and rear-yard setbacks to a minimum 50 feet, and discussed sending a memorandum or representative to the Planning Commission to outline its concerns.

The county’s current zoning ordinance mandates at least a 100-foot front-yard setback and a minimum 25-foot side- and rear-yard setback for any industrial-zoned land that abuts a residence. Planning Commissioner Jennifer Boykin, in September, proposed increasing the minimum distance to 300 feet all around.

The Planning Commission has yet to agree on final verbiage or advertise the required public hearing for the proposed ordinance change. When the EDA discussed opposing the change in October, Boykin asked a representative from Economic Development to make their case at a future Planning Commission meeting.

“We are in a very competitive situation as far as property goes,” said EDA Chairman Carroll Keen, who noted some of the property the EDA is trying to sell is located less than a mile from the county’s border with Suffolk, which requires only a 30-foot all-around buffer when an M-1 light industrial-zoned property abuts a residential area. For M-2 heavy industrial zoning adjacent to residences, Suffolk requires only a 30-foot front-yard setback and 50-foot side- and rear-yard setbacks.

A 300-foot all-around setback “takes a lot of property on (Route) 460 out of the picture,” Keen said.

The Planning Commission began discussing increased setbacks after county supervisors, in June, voted down the proposed Tidewater Logistics Center, which at the time had proposed a five-warehouse complex totaling 1.2 million square feet on 154 acres of farmland and forestry along Route 460 on the outskirts of the town of Windsor. Its developer, The Meridian Group, is scheduled to present a revised proposal to the Planning Commission on Jan. 28 that calls for four warehouses totaling just under 726,000 square feet instead of five.

The revised concept, if approved, would occupy an EDA-owned 83-acre parcel fronting the four-lane highway and two non-EDA parcels owned by Hollowell Holdings LLC. The revised concept proposes a minimum 280-foot buffer where the project would abut the Keaton Avenue and Lovers Lane neighborhoods in Windsor, where residents had been vocal in their opposition to Meridian’s first concept.

Meanwhile, a larger 2.4 million-square-foot, five-warehouse logistics park dubbed Port 460 is under construction in Suffolk roughly six miles east of the proposed Tidewater Logistics Center site. Suffolk’s City Council approved the project in 2022.